Fireworks

At 11:30 pm on New Year's Eve I went down to the beach and had a front row view of a firework show I didn't know was going to happen!

Disgusting Jelly Beans

The Sunday before the new year the Breinholts from church had everyone over for a Christmas and New Year potluck.

We played Christmas songs with chimes.

We played a "white elephant" game.

 At first I opened stationery designed for mom.
 

 I ended up with a measuring glass.

 Afterwards we played some games.

Spoons!

Then we played a game called "Slammers-Creepers."  I could explain it, but I won't.  But whichever team lost had to randomly choose from a pile of jelly beans that about half were disgustingly flavored.  I can't remember any of the flavors except for the one that I got: canned dog food. (I remember now that some of them were things like: dirt, boogers, baby wipes, vomit, etc...).

It was nasty...but fun.
 

 Eating a canned dog food jelly bean.  Yikes. 

 The other team after eating a "rotten egg" jelly bean.

Leave it to the Mormons to have enough crazy fun sober.

I'm so thankful for friends here, nasty jelly beans and all.

Glass Museum

The Saturday after getting back from Japan I went to the Hsinchu Glass Museum.  It had been a while since I've been to a museum, or something of that nature, so I decided to see what it was all about.  It was very nice but small.  The property it was on was huge though and also had a mini-zoo (which I didn't go to), a cool park and a mote surrounding it.  There was also a huge music festival going on.

However, nothing upsets a tourist more than a sign that says -

"No photos allowed inside." 

Grrr, but it was still cool.  There were displays of glass from all over the world designed in impressive artistic ways.  Outside, however, there were tons of photographic stuff on the premises.  It was a perfect weather day and fun seeing people out and about enjoying the festivities.

This (whatever it is) folded up into a bus.

Horse and carriage.

They had glass displays outside around the premises as well.

"Man Making Glass" display.

I really like this picture.  I'm not sure why, I just do.

Not much to say except it was a fun small activity.

Japan: Day 5 - The Flight Home

While waiting for my shuttle to the airport in the morning, I snapped a few photos with the blue sky.

My hotel.

Right when we took off we were able to see Mount Fuji in the far distant horizon...

...and it kept getting closer and closer.

It was a surprising way to end a fun trip to see Japan.

I'm thankful I had the opportunity to do so.

- the end of japan -

Japan: Day 4 - Part 3

After the cemetery I decided I wanted to go back to the downtown area that I had went to the first night.  There were tons of things to see and do and I wanted to find a nice place to eat Christmas dinner.

Cool building.

I was surprised by the Tokyo escalator etiquette:

If you were not walking up the escalator, you stand to the left, and that left open the right side so that those walking up (or down) could pass you.  This happened on every escalator and I guess it's just a cultural thing that they do.  It was nice.

 I decided that I wanted to go up to the top of the Mori Tower to see Tokyo at night.  It's an office building but the bottom was a gigantic shopping area.  It's the fifth tallest building in Tokyo and was completed in 2003.

I bought a ticket to go to the very top, but wasn't expecting what that eventually entailed.  I kept seeing Mickey Mouse all over the place with the subtitle "Walt Disney 110th Anniversary."  I didn't really think anything of it.

 

In the elevator on the way up.

 Once we got to the top, we walked out of the elevator and out onto the literal roof of the building, with nothing above us but the dark sky.  But what was crazy was that the "Mickey Mouse Club" song was BLARING and there were psychedelic lights going off everywhere.  I literally had no idea what was going on.

What I eventually figured out was that it was an entire Disney celebration!...that was randomly going on at the top of this random building!

 

But first,

the view...

 

Tokyo Tower.

It was beautiful up at the top and really peaceful.  It wasn't windy at all but of course it was freezing.  The view was fantastic.  It was a complete 360 degree view of the entire city; I'm so glad I went at night.  There were a lot of people but it was such a huge roof that it didn't matter.

 It was impossible to get a picture of me with the background.  Oh well.

Short clip of the view:

 Scattered all over the area were a bunch of random metallic and shiny Disney character statues/silhouettes (I can't think of any other way to describe them)...

 ...and every fifteen minutes they came to life for a crazy lights-and-music show!  I had no idea this would be going on at the top.  I watched it three times.

It was such a cool Christmas surprise.  Nothing thaaat amazing, but still a cool surprise.  It was just neat with the view and the blaring music and being way up high and the lights.

I filmed five minutes of it...I couldn't press stop.

 They even had a Walt and Mickey cut-out.

 One level below they had a gigantic Disney area set up for shopping and eating and Christmas stuff.  It was cool, but everything was beyond expensive..."Disney Hot Chocolate" was $9US.

Disney character silhouettes around the bottom of the Christmas tree.

Jafar?  At Christmas?

Thank you Mori Tower for the great view and night and Disney stuff.

 Afterwards, I went back down to Earth and walked around the shopping area looking for a place to eat.  It was beeeeyond confusing.  I have never seen a shopping center this gigantic and complex.  The maps made zero sense and neither did the checkpoint maps they had everywhere.  I went to Customer Service to ask them where a certain restaurant was and how to get there and they could hardly tell me without confusing themselves.  

I never found it...

but I did find a cool Christmas candle display.

Eventually I gave up the dream of finding a nice place to have Christmas dinner and settled with a burger joint just next to the candles; I had had enough with that place...

...except while I was leaving to go home I saw that Les Miserables was playing there (which isn't opening in Taiwan until February), so I took a stop for three hours to see it.  I thought it was great.

Thank goodness the subways run late because I didn't get to my hotel until long after midnight.

It was such a great Christmas and one I won't ever forget.  I enjoyed the relaxing day and sightseeing on my own.  Tokyo is such a cool city.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas 2012.